Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-07-23
UNION DEM MOCRACY.
GENERALIZATION AND DEMO-
CRATIC CONTROL.
Trades Union Principles Applied to
Production and Distribution.
Competence and Response
bility to the People.
Indiyidualism.
BY DR.. A. DOUAI.

One Of the prcjudiccs which pre-
walls in the United States more than
elsewhere is that n centralized GOV
ernmcnt is Incompatible with free
dom. 1t is easily demonstrabIc that
this belief is unfounded.
Suppose our postal system were
improved in one respect; each postal
district to choose its postmaster and
his clerks and letter carriers when
ever the citizens in the district saw
fit to do so, while the postal officers
of each State or locality formed
trades union and decided among
themselves how much the value of
the service of each of these men
should amount to, and who was most
capable of fulfilling the duties Of the
respective positions from letter car
rler or clerk to postmaster general,
while the citizens had in each case
the appointing power and the de-
clslon about the cost of the service.
Would not this kind of postal ad-
ministration be perfectly democratic?
Would it give any patronage or other
powerful influence to the N'eneral
Postmaster or to the President of the
United States, or to any of the sub
ordinate postal otlicres? Certainly
not; on the contrary, all the power
in that department OF the admins
tration would be in the hands of the
people. But the voters would no
longer be in the dark about the com.
petence of each officer proposed, and
about the necessary cost of each
branch of the service. The voters
would vote understandingly about
these things. The postal officers
could no longer be tyrannized by any
of their superlors; the merits of each
member of the union would be more
justly appreciated than ever before;
advancement in the service would
not depend on favoritism. The peo-
pie would get the full value of their
outlay in more perfect service, and
improvements in the same could
easily be advised and carried out.
Nor would this kind of postal admin
istratlon be clumsy, or trouble the
voters with too many details of busi-
ness. The general postal service
would be regulated by laws which
would require but little change from
time to time.
Now, this would be centralization
of the postal service, compatible with
every imaginable freedom within the
same; but it would be divested of
all pomp and circumstance now con-
nected with it; of all abuse of power,
command of voters and patronage.
1t would serve the people efficiently
and its usefulness would depend
upon the intelligence of the voters.
Now, imagine every other branch
of production and distribution to be
organized according to the trades
union principle, and every (male Or
female) citizen to be member of
either of these trade unions. That
would be Capitalization of all pro-
ductive and distributive business
carried on most democratically, and
establishing, at the same time, the
highest attainable degree of freedom.
The interests of all these local,
national and ultimately international
trades unions would of course be
very different and they must be en-
titled to full representation within
the general council. But since there
is better prospect under this kind
of organization than under any other
of having the wisest and most COM
petent men at the head of each trade
union-they will more easily than
in any other way find plan to so
compromise, for the time being, all
these varied interests and to do so
more justly and perfectly in every
subsequent year so that no interest